Idaho governor signs first bill of the session into law

Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter has signed the first bill of the 2018 legislative session into law.

Otter on Wednesday signed off on HB335, which is expected to save employers a total of $115 million over the next three years by reducing a key component in how Idaho calculates the unemployment insurance tax rate. It’s also expected to reduce the cost of unemployment insurance taxes by 30 percent.

Idaho lawmakers were supposed to make the reduction last year. However, the bill got hijacked by legislative leaders who wanted to use the proposal as leverage for other tax cuts and in the end, the bill never made it to Otter’s desk.

This year, the bill sailed through the House and Senate.